Kindred Spirits
by Greywolf
Summary: The first Siegfried/Taki romance on fanfic.net. Finally finished!! :D
1. Prelude

Kindred Spirits-prelude  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Edge or any of the characters. I'm not making money of any kind from this. Don't sue me. That about covers it.  
  
  
  
Siegfried Schtauffen. A young man who had only recently become a soul in Purgatory. He knew he had to attone for the horrible sins he had commited. He knew that for what he had done, he was going to Hell. His quest for redemption was a slow one. Today, Siegfried had returned to the City of Water, to Venice, Italy. Another evil vanquished, and one more step on the path to return under God's light. As he lifted his enormous zweihader sword, Requiem, a strange thought crossed his mind. He unconsciously began his exercises as his mind flooded to a peculiar dream he had been having lately.  
  
Siegfried was alone in the shadows. He heard a voice say his name. The voice told him to follow it. Siegfried ran towards the sound of the disembodied voice. Finally, he reached it. He saw a woman standing alone, her face obscured in shadow. Though she spoke clearly, Siegfried was unable to listen to her, as he found himself captivated by her presence.  
  
The girl finished speaking and the last thing Siegfried Schtauffen could remember of this dream before waking up was the feeling of that young woman's lips, soft as silk, against his own.  
  
In another land, the ninja known only as Taki, finished her training session with the memory of a strange dream herself.  
  
There was a young man with blonde hair, whose steel armor shone like the sun and banished the darkness and loneliness around her. Although this armored boy spoke to Taki, she could not remember his words, as if he had not spoken at all. What she found unusual about this dream is how she never saw his face as she always woke up the instant he turned around and wrapped his strong arms around her.  
  
That evening, two warriors gazed to the sky and wondered what their dreams meant and if they would ever find out.  
  
  
What do you think? Should I finish the story? 


	2. Meetings

Kindred Spirits-Part 1  
  
  
Siegfried walked acroos the barren land known as The Wastelands. The soil there was grey and hard, full of clay. Hardly anything grew aside from some scrub and a few trees. The trees, however, were practically dead. The area was very gloomy and almost no one ever came through here. He had no idea where his destination was. He simply followed the winds and listened for rumors of Soul Edge. He hated the evil sword for the pain it had caused him, given him pleasure in killing and destroying. The sun was beginning to set and threw long shadows across the deserted plains. Siegfried was now reminiscing on his recurring dream and it was not until he heard a woman's voice call to him that he snapped out of his trance.  
  
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" (AN: Use the suspension of disbelief here on the whole communication thing. It was the best solution I could come up with.) The voice came from a woman in a tight red outfit with a mask concealing half of her face. Her hands were on two small swords, one across her back and one at her hip. She looked Siegfried up and down and found him oddly familiar for some reason.  
  
Siegfried looked up at her and replied, "I am Siegfried Schtauffen. Have we met?" Siegfried also found the young woman to be familiar, though he could not quite place where he had seen her.  
  
She hesitated. "No, I am Taki, the demon huntress. I ask again, what are you doing here?" Taki fingered the hilts of her swords. After a lifetime of loneliness and hunting down evil beings, she had never come to fully trust anybody.  
  
There was another pause, longer. Tension ran high in the air. A gentle breeze stirred up and brought the faint musty smell of the barren earth into the air. "I seek Soul Edge."  
  
That was perhaps the worst thing Siegfried could have said. Taki gasped and her eyes widened. Her fears had been confirmed, this man wanted Soul Edge. 'He must not get that sword,' she thought to herself. 'I will never know the truth of Meki-marru if I allow him to get hold of Soul Edge.' She took a deep breath in and readied her fighting stance.  
  
Siegfried immediately noticed she was about to attack and readied Requiem.  
  
The two fighters stood staring at one another waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, Taki leaped forward with a yell. Siegfried swung out his zweihander, trying to land a blow in the neck, but Taki ducked underneath the blade and puched him hard in the face.  
  
Siegfried could feel his jaw aching as he fell backward but quickly recovered. He rolled backward, stood and began twirling Requiem in the deadly Blaze maneuver. Taki leaped backward to avoid it but when Siegfried suddenly swung the sword behind him and brought it up with his left hand in a massive upward cut, the tip managed to catch hold of her left shoulderplate, leaving a deep gash in it.  
  
Siegfried went on the attack again. He executed two powerful downward cuts, both missed, but he managed to cut Taki's forearm when he sliced upward leaving the blade to rest at his back in a base hold and ready for the next attack.  
  
Taki did a great flip backward to get some distance. She quickly checked her arm. The cut was shallow, though it was still bleeding. She could not believe how fast this young man could swing a sword that heavy. He would have to be incredibly strong to have that kind of control over the force of the blade. Unfortunately, before she could form a plan, she looked up and saw Siegfried in mid-air before his metal boots connected with her chest in a drop kick sending her flying backward and landing hard on her side.  
  
Siegfried went in for another attack, but Taki sprang up and delivered a spinning kick to his head. The first conected into his temple, but the second he managed to block. Taki jumped high into the air drawing both swords. She did a half-twist and was about to land behind Siegfried. The young warrior saw this and prepared to pivot to smack her with the flat of his sword.  
  
What happened next took place so quickly it was hard to tell what happened when. The instant Taki landed, Siegfried was already turning. She lunged forward and jamed both Rekki-Marru and Mekki-Marru into his shoulder up to the hilts. Siegfried already had so much momentum when he felt the swords enter his flesh that his attack was successful. Taki let go of her blades and was sent flying as the flat of Requiem slammed hard into her ribs.  
  
She got to her feet several seconds later to see Siegfried staring down in shock at the two swords which had so easily cleaved through his armor and run through his shoulder. Abruptly, Requiem fell to the ground with a clatter. Tears started streaming down his eyes and Siegfried used what little energy he had left to turn and face the setting sun.  
  
Taki gasped in horror. She recognized him now. Looking at him from behind, his armor shining in the light still left from the horizon, Taki could clearly tell he was the young man from her dreams. She heard two hoarse words escape from Siegfried's lips. "I failed," was all he said as he looked up at the sky with tears staining his face. Then, his kness gave way and Siegfried Schtauffen fell to the ground, his whole world going black. 


	3. Apologies

Kindred Spirits-Part 2  
  
  
Siegfried awoke, his entire body aching, his senses dull, and only faintly aware of the fact that he was conscious. His head rolled to one side and the first thing he saw was a fire. 'Hell,' he thought as tears welled up in his eyes. 'I'm in Hell. I failed and now I must pay for it.'  
  
It wasn't until Siegfried felt something cool on his forehead did he remove his eyes from the fire. He looked up and saw a young woman placing a damp rag on his forehead. "If this is Hell," he muttered softly, "then you must be an angel." Even though his vision was still slightly blurred, Siegfried could see how beautiful she was. She had pale skin and dark eyes. Her hair was as black as a raven's wing and tied in a high ponytail.  
  
Taki did not know what he meant by Hell, but she had heard of angels before. Beautiful beings, saviours of lives. She couldn't help but smile. "You're awake, I see."  
  
Siegfried's vision came into focus and he now recognized the woman before him as Taki, the demon huntress who had defeated him in battle. At first he was confused. Why didn't she let him die? Why had she saved him? He tried to gather his thoughts. "W-where am I?" It was all he could say.  
  
Taki stood up and walked to the fire. "The Wastelands. I bandaged your wound, so you should probably live if you don't get sick." She paused. "I'm sorry for attacking you earlier," she said sadly. "I was too quick to judge. I thought you wanted Soul Edge for some evil purpose. When I saw the tears you shed, I knew I was mistaken. Something about you told me that it wasn't the search for Soul Edge you lost, but something else." Taki was only telling half of the truth but she wasn't quite ready to tell this boy Siegfried about him being in her dream. She decided to wait and see if she had made the right choice.  
  
Siegfied nodded. "Thank you." He looked up from his bed roll at Taki. A smirk played across his face as he was able to see the full scope of her beauty. She was sitting by the fire and had taken off her shoulder plates, gauntlets, tabai boots, and her mask. She was thin with long, shapely legs and a curvy figure. Her ample bossom rose sightly as she took a deep breath in. Her face and dark brown was set with sadness and what Siegfried guessed was loneliness. Her pale lips remained still and her raven black hair flowed slightly in a passing breeze. Siegfried was tempted for a moment to reach out and untie Taki's ponytail, to run his fingers through her hair to see if it was as soft as it looked. He tried to sit up. He became aware that his shoulder was heavily bandaged and the only thing he was wearing were the black drawstring braies (AN: Braies are cheap pants in medieval and Renaissance days, btw) he wore under his armor. His shoulder began seering in pain and he let out a small yelp.  
  
Taki was immediately at his side. "You need to rest. You're lucky to be alive." She placed one hand on his good shoulder and the other on his chest and gently eased him down. Her mind kept distractedly wandering to the strange contrast of his skin, which was soft and smooth when compared to his rock hard muscles. Now that she wasn't trying to doctor his wound, Taki noticed for the first time how powerfully built he was. It was obvious from the way he handled his immense sword that he had trained for pure strength and not size. She also noticed several scars crossing his body. Some of them were painful to just look at. She took a second while he wasn't looking to admire his handsome face. One of his hazel eyes was covered by his long blonde hair. Taki felt a strong desire to brush away the hair so she could see both of his strong hazel eyes.  
  
Siegfried sighed. He tried to keep his thoughts straight but his mind kept reminding him of how soft Taki's hands were. Siegfried looked back up at her worried face and smiled. "Again, thank you. I apologize for earlier. I think I should have held back. I really didn't want to hurt you. Just stop you."  
  
Taki just smiled back "It's alright. The few injuries I got were nothing. They'll heal quickly." Siegfried seemed so genuinely sorry, she didn't dare tell him anything contrary to what she just said. In reality, the cut on her arm wasn't too bad, but the kick had badly bruised her chest and it would take a lot of time to heal properly. "You better get some rest. I was about to go to sleep myself after I finished making sure you were alright."  
  
Siegfried nodded. "Yes, yes. I suppose we'll have time to talk in morning." He slipped again into blissful slumber with a smile on his handsome face.  
  
Taki watched him as she crawled into her bed roll. She was almost certain that Siegfried was the boy from her dreams. There were still doubts lurking in the corners of her mind, but right now she was too tired to pay attention to them. As she drifted to sleep, the heavens looked down upon two young people and smiled that Fate was finally bringing them together.  
  
  
  
Stay tuned for Part 3 of Kindred Spirits as the heart-warming conclusion takes place. 


	4. Dreams of True Love

Kindred Spirits- Conclusion  
  
  
Siegfried awoke to see Taki sleeping quietly beside him. He smiled slightly as he reminisced over the past month travelling with her. Taki was like no other woman he had ever met. Back home in the Holy Roman Empire, women were basically there to marry and bear children while taking care of the house. On the other hand, Taki was strong and independent. She knew how to take care of herself and had idominable spirit. While this struck Siegfried as a little unusual, he found it very... attractive? Yes. He found Takitobe very attractive. His smile widened slightly as he came upon this somewhat abrupt revelation.  
  
Taki turned over to face him, still asleep. Her features were perfectly calm and relaxed. After a moment, a tiny smile started to dance across her lips. 'Whatever dream she's having,' Siegfried thought, 'best to let her finish it.' He quietly sat up from his bedroll, looking at his shoulder and the fresh scars where he had been stabbed before. He crept over to the small fire ring they had made last night and set about making a new fire from last night's ashes.  
  
Meanwhile, Taki was lost in her dream. You see, she had come to the conclusion that Siegfried Schtauffen was the boy in her dreams. The visions were clearer now, and the figure within these dreamscapes was clearly Siegfried. Despite this, Taki still wasn't able to hear what he said and the dream ended as it always had. Her eyes fluttered open and the pleasant smell of roasting fish drifted to her nose. She saw Siegfried kneeling before the flames, roasting two fish on a make-shift spit. The demon huntress briefly debated whether or not to tell him about her dreams and decided once more to wait until she was sure she knew how he felt. It was frustrating, but every morning she faced the same inner debate ad always made the same conclusion. She simply sat up and smiled over at the young warrior before her.  
  
Siegrfried smiled back at her. "Good morning," he said warmly. "I hope you don't mind waiting a while."  
  
"It's alright," Taki replied. She stretched out her stiff muscles and reached for her gear. As she quietly slipped on her tabi boots, she clandestinely watched Siegfried from the corner of her eye. The inner debate came up again. It was tearing her apart to be this close to him and unable to say a word about how she felt. At last, she decided she couldn't take it any longer. Biting her lip, Taki turned to face the blonde warrior before her. "Siegfried?" Her voice trembled a bit and she silently cursed herself.  
  
"Something on your mind," Siegfried asked. His smile widened sligtly as he looked over at her. He too had been having clearer visions in his dreams. However, he wasn't entirely sure it was Taki he was seeing. Doubt lurked in the darkest corners of his mind, but he pushed it back with his painful memories. He didn't want to assume anything right then, so he bided his time.  
  
Taki finally decided to swallow her doubts as she looked into is eyes. She cleared her throat and turned to face him. "Siegfried... I've been having these dreams lately ad I think..."  
  
She swallowed before continuing. As she opened her mouth to speak, however, shouts and woops came from the woods, and out of nowhere emerged about a dozen bandits.  
  
Taki and Siegfried leaped up to fight, but were too late. The bandits surrounded them and held them fast. They bound Siegfried's wrists with rope and two men pulled his arms out to the side. Another two men restrained Taki as their comrades bound her hands behind her back and tied her ankles.  
  
What must have been the leader of the group stepped forward. He was a dark-haired man with a scruffy mustache and about six feet tall. "Well, what have we here," he said with a smirk. He looked over Siegfried briefly. "We might be able to sell him as a slave somewhere."  
  
The young warrior simply spit at the brigand's feet. "Burn in Hell."  
  
The bandit leader back-anded Siegfried hard across the jaw and moved his gaze to Taki with lust in his eyes. "Now this one we can keep." He forcefully took her jaw between his thumb and forefinger, making her look him in the eye. "Yes, we can keep her. Naturally, I call the first fucking."  
  
The other bandits forwned slightly, but didn't openly object. Siegfried struggled harder against his captors. "Leave her own you son of a bitch!" The young warrior tried, but couldn't seem to wrestle the ropes from the grips of the bandits that held him.  
  
The bandit leader simply sighed. "Perhaps he's not worth the trouble. Take him to the river and kill him."  
  
As the bandits started to try to drag Siegfried away, Taki squirmed her face loose and shouted, "Siegfried!" She was promptly silenced by a hard blow to the stomach, knocking her wind out. The blow was followed by a hard punch in the head and elbow strike to hte lower back, causing the ninja to nearly pass out.  
  
"Taki!" Siegfried fought harder and harder. Finally, he pulled his hands toward each other and down, pulling the bandits off balance and stumbling toward him. Siegfried brought his arms up in powerful elbow strikes which made contact with the men's faces and breaking their noses.  
  
As the two fell backward, losing consciousness, Siegfried flew into a rage. He whipped the ropes still tied to his wrists around, slapping his attackers until he could get to his zweihander. The young knight reached the enormous blade and swung it above his head with a barbaric roar. He brought the blade down in a slash and lopped off the nearest bandit's head like a grape cut from its stem.  
  
The men all drew their weapons, but Siegfried swung his swird around vioelntly, cutting a swathe through them quickly, becoming drenched in their blood as torrents of gore sprayed from gaping wounds and lacerations.  
  
The young knight leaped into the air ad raised Requiem above his head. He swung the blade down as he dropped to the earth. The cold steal landed upon one of the few remaining bandits, splitting him like a watermelon down to the navel. After removing the sword from the mutilated corpse, Siegfried spun one hundred and eighty degrees, slamming the flat of his blade into the torso of another man, crushing his ribs.  
  
Soon, the only bandit left was the leader. The scruffy criminal urinated himself in fear, too petrified to move as Siegfried turned his murderous gaze to him. The last thing the man saw was Requiem thrusting forward into his stomach before the world flipped upside down and the ground impacted with his face, breaking his neck.  
  
Siegfried vioelntly ripped his sword from the corpse and turned to Taki's half-conscious body. His expression softened and he dropped to his knees beside her, tears welling up in his eyes. "Taki..."  
  
"Siegfried....," she whispered. "I love you," was the last thing she said before slipping into uncosciousness. The revelation had struck Taki at the same time the words left her mouth. It was love destined to be. She understood it then as her world went black.  
  
Siegfried untied her bonds and held her too him closely. "I love you, too," he sobbed. The words flowed out of him so naturally, it just felt so right. The images of his dreams came into full focus as he stoicly lifted Taki in his arms. "Hold on," he wispered to her. "I'll get you to safety."  
  
The young knight carried her and only the bare essentials from their camp for twenty hours without sleep. It was almost dawn by the time he reached a small hamlet, exhausted, but still carrying Taki who had yet to awaken.  
  
The residents were alarmed at first to see the young man covered in blood carrying this woman, and the local constabulary was called in. Before Siegfried could explain, he passed out from exhaustion.  
  
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The next morning, Siegfried sat at Taki's bedside, watching over her sadly. Most of her lower torso was bandaged and she had a turban of white cloth wrapped about her head. The young knight nodded off after a while, still tired, and slipped into his dream. What he didn't know, was that Taki was facing the dream as well. This time, they could hear eachother's voices.  
  
'Siegfried...'  
'Taki...'  
'We are kindred spirits...'  
'Destined to be together...'  
'Fate has brought us together, not chance...'  
'We were born for one another. The true love that not everyone finds...'  
'So you see, Siegfried, that we are exceptional. This isn't something to waste...'  
'But, now, it is time to leave the dream behind. It is time to make these visions reality Taki...'  
  
The dream ended and the two warriors woke up, looking into each other's eyes. Not a word passed between them, they simply leaned toward one another. The world became distant, unimportant. Slowly, their lips met and deepened into a passionate kiss. This was true love, and it wasn't just their lips that met, but their hearts and souls as well. Two kindred spirits, now one.  
  
And so this chapter is done, but there are more stories to tell in the saga of the search for Soul Edge. If you want to hear more stories, you'll have to prove you want to hear them.  
  
  
There's the conclusion. Not my best work, but this is my first romance, so I'm not sure if this is really that good. Will there be a sequel? Maybe. Will I write more anyway? Hell yes!  
Send me a review and give me your thoughts. I'll fix all the typoes later,I just wated to get this posted. ^_^ 


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